Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag announcement imminent?

This year’s Assassin’s Creed game looks like it’s a pirate-themed expansion of the current game’s naval combat, as a poster and screenshot are leaked.

For years, if not decades, gamers have been pining for a proper open world pirate adventure and it looks as if it may finally be happening, courtesy of Ubisoft.

The poster below was sent in to website Kotaku, and follows a number of rumours about an Assassin’s Creed game called Black Flag – including one guy who saw a Ubisoft exec working on a Powerpoint presentation for the game on an aeroplane.

The poster is pretty self-explanatory and does seem to feature an assassin character in the middle. Although it doesn’t appear to be Connor from Assassin’s Creed IV.

Entirely separate to the Kotaku leak a lone screenshot turned up at Examiner.com. The image above doesn’t really show anything but according to the website the main character is Edward Kenway, father of Haytham Kenway. The golden age of piracy in the Caribbean lasted roughly from 1650 to 1730, which fits exactly with a character a generation older than Connor.

Edward is apparently a privateer and assassin, and the game includes the islands of Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas. Just to seal the deal earlier rumours had pegged this year’s Assassin’s Creed game as having the subtitle ‘Golden Age’, so there really doesn’t seem much question that these leaks are anything but legit.

Officially Ubisoft has already confirmed that a new Assassin’s Creed, with a new hero and setting, will be out this year. We also have a press event with them this evening for something Assassin’s Creed related, and which is embargoed until next week…

It’s very likely this will be the first Assassin’s Creed for the PlayStation 4, and potentially Xbox 720, but whether Ubisoft will announce what formats it’s on we’ll have to wait and see.